Your Business Is Your Livelihood. Keep It Safe!

Just like in day-to-day life, there are many unpredictable things which can pose a threat to a business. When you’re the owner of a fledgling start-up, it’s essential that you make yourself aware of these kinds of hazards, and get all the necessary insurance to protect your business against them. While insurance needs differ from business to business, there are certain universal types of insurance every company needs…

Property insurance

There are probably all kinds of things which can be classified as the “property” of your business. Things like machinery, computers, and stock that are essential to the smooth running of your company can all be bundled under a property insurance policy.

No matter how remote the chances of something being damaged, stolen or lost, you need to make sure they’re protected. One of the most important forms of insurance that you’ll need is commercial premises insurance, covering things like vandalism, fire, flooding and so on.

Depending on the area your business is in, there may be a chance of you having to make, say, a commercial hail damage insurance claim. These and other, more specialised policies should also come into consideration when you’re buying insurance.

Liability insurance

Due to accidents being so unpredictable, and the modern suing culture being so rampant, it’s also very important for all business owners to secure liability insurance. Whether an accident happens on your property or off it, whether it involves a customer or an employee, there are all manner of scenarios where you could find yourself the target of some aggressive litigation.

There are two main types of liability insurance you should look into and consider purchasing. The first is professional liability insurance, which is mainly for service-based businesses, and will protect you from claims by your clients that you failed to provide a service having already received a fee.

If you’re running a product-based business, on the other hand, you’ll want to secure some product liability insurance. This will protect you from legal action should your product cause any kind of physical harm to a customer.

Business interruption insurance

One of the more little-known forms of commercial cover is business interruption insurance. These policies will recover any income your business might lose in the event of a disaster. From street closures to fires to bomb threats, there are all kinds of scenarios which different business interruption policies can protect you from.

Go looking for some quotes, and you’ll find that this kind of insurance is significantly more expensive than the ones I’ve listed above. While this might make you less inclined to buy a policy, I recommend taking your time to consider it.

The western world is now much more focussed on the threat of terrorism, and the frequency of natural disasters has been steadily rising for some time. As unlikely as it may be that you’ll have to stop your business operations out of the blue, think very carefully about whether you can afford for that to happen.

Founding Editor @Alltopstartups, Columnist @Inc. Magazine and Curator at Postanly (his free weekly digest of the best life and career improvement posts on the web). Subscribe for free. Check out his books on Amazon.